October 30, 2007

Iowa’s Unemployment Compensation System:
Time to Modernize It

 Unemployment insurance (UI) offers vital temporary income support when workers must leave their jobs or are laid off through no fault of their own.  Unfortunately,  many unemployed workers are currently ineligible for unemployment insurance because the program is outdated and unfair to workers.  In testimony offered before the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women, the IFL highlighted the urgent need for modernization of UI.  This is especially important now because Congress is considering a proposal that will offer financial incentives for states to correct some of these inequities and bring unemployment insurance programs into alignment with our 21^st century economy.

$77 million  for Iowa  The state of Iowa, and specifically Iowa Workforce Development, could be eligible for up to $77 million in incentives over five years, if we pass UI reforms that meet certain criteria in the federal legislation.  These reforms include:

· Considering a worker’s most recent work history when determining eligibility:  The current system  particularly disadvantages women who have recently left welfare and joined the workforce, by denying benefits to those whose work experience was more recent.

· Recognizing compelling family circumstances for leaving work.  Some states deny benefits to workers who have to leave their job for compelling family reasons.  The current system  disproportionately impacts women.

· Helping families with children by boosting weekly benefits for unemployed workers who are caring for children or other dependents.

· Extending UI benefits for dislocated workers while training for new jobs.  Without an extension of benefits, far too many workers must cut short job training and resign themselves to lower-paying jobs.

· Guaranteeing 26 weeks of assistance for the long-term jobless.  In Iowa the average worker runs out in about 21 weeks, which also cuts the amount workers can receive in federal benefits.  Again, this forces workers to cut training short and take lower paying jobs.

Meeting the challenge   With the offer of incentives, Congress has indicated its support for modernization of the UI system.  It is up to our state to meet the challenge and reform our outdated eligibility rules that deny benefits to low-wage and women workers and recognize the new realities of long-term unemployment.

 It would be shortsighted of Iowa to ignore this unique opportunity, but even without the incentives, we should enact as many of these reforms as possible to better serve working women, as well as other workers, in today’s workforce.

Massachusetts public workers get card check bill signed!

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed into law the Majority Authorization bill, which will provide more Massachusetts workers with the opportunity to organize.  (9/27/07) "This bill is about leveling the playing field between labor and management," Patrick said. "It affirms the commonwealth’s policy of supporting workers who should be able to bargain collectively for fair wages, decent health care and on the job protections."  

The Majority Authorization bill permits public-sector employees to become unionized through a "card check" written option instead of only through secret ballot elections. The law in Massachusetts is a modified state version of the national Employee Free Choice Act.

The bill signing can be watched on YouTube at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d0sLIrFmjw

       A coalition of technology industry leaders and universities is lobbying for an unlimited number of H-1B visas, claiming that the typical recipient of this visa is a uniquely skilled engineer earning over $100,000 per year.  A report by the Economic Policy Institute gives a different story, calling the H-1B program “thoroughly corrupted.” Four points stand out:

þ The requirement that workers be paid prevailing wage is “chock full of loopholes.”  The Government Accountability Office reported that some employers hired H-1B workers “in part because these workers would often accept lower salaries than similarly qualified U.S. workers.”

þ The program discriminates against American workers.  The U.S. Department of Labor’s 2006 Strategic Plan bluntly states: “H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified U.S. worker wants the job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from the job in favor of the foreign worker.”

 þ Under this program America serves as a “training ground for foreign workers.”  Business Week reported on one company, Wipro, with over half of its workforce on H-1B visas: “About 1,000 new temporary workers come to the country each year, while 1,000 rotate back to India, with improved skills to serve clients.”

þ Lobbyists’ claims that the H-1B program prevents outsourcing are disputed by the facts: Seven of the top ten H-1B employers are offshore outsourcing firms that “gobbled up” nearly 20,000 visas in 2006 alone.

   The report offers a twofold solution.  Help U.S. students and underemployed workers fill these jobs and then “let the market work.”  If technology workers are as scarce as lobbyists claim, then wages will bid up and talented workers will choose engineering professions.

U.S. Sets Another Inequality Record — When do we start to say “Hey, just a minute...!”

In 2005, according to new IRS statistics, the top 1 percent of tax filers--everyone who made over $364,657--took home 21.2 percent of the nation's income, a new record for our economy. 

The bottom half of America's tax filers, the Wall Street Journal noted last week, took home--all together--just 12.8 percent of national income in 2005.  (October 15 Too Much)

The Gini index, an international measure of the income inequality in a society, puts the United States at 40.8, the highest of any advanced industrial nation.  All European and most Asian nations - including Japan and South Korea - have far greater income equality than the U.S.  Canada scores 31.4 on the Gini index.    Most of the nations with similar or greater income inequality than the United States are located in Latin America or Africa (states whose social structures we increasingly resemble!).

Wealth: Sharing it or concentrating it?

Paul Krugman notes in his new book, The Conscience of a Liberal, that “the middle-class society I grew up in didn’t evolve gradually or automatically. It was created, in a remarkably short period of time, by FDR and the New Deal.” 

The chart shows the share of the richest 10 percent of the American population in total income – an indicator that closely tracks many other measures of economic inequality – over the past 90 years, as estimated by the economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Krugman added labels indicating the four key periods in our nation’s history.

             (krugman.blogs.nytimes.com)

Wal-Mart Pigs Out
on Tax Assessment Challenges

A new tactic   Until now it was assumed that Wal-Mart amassed its stupendous wealth by keeping wages low, avoiding giving employees’ adequate health care, and crushing competition.  Now a report by Good Jobs First reveals another Wal-Mart tactic for padding its bottom line: challenging its property tax assessments.

$30 million from tax challenges  Good Jobs First found that Wal-Mart has filed assessment challenges at more than one-third of its stores and distribution centers around the country.  That adds up to 2,100 property tax challenges nationwide.  Over the past decade, Wal-Mart has won about $30 million doing this.

Wal-Mart reduces property values, says...Wal-Mart(?!)  Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First points out a hypocrisy, and ultimately a great irony, in Wal-Mart’s strategy.  The company claims it will bring economic benefits to the community, which would normally lead to higher property values.  “Yet,” LeRoy says, “in these assessment appeals the company routinely argues that the value of its properties has declined.”  So Wal-Mart ends up unwittingly confirming the argument of neighborhood groups that the construction of one of its giant stores will reduce property values.

“Pay your tax bills, Wal-Mart!”  The Good Jobs First report concluded with its own challenge to Wal-Mart: “Cease your assault on property taxes.  If you are serious about being a responsible corporate ‘citizen’ and you really care about the communities in which you operate, you should forget about assessment challenges and pay your tax bills in full without complaint.  You can easily afford to do so, and the amounts involved mean a lot more to those communities than to your enormous bottom line.”  www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/walmartproptax.pdf

Company Bankruptcies Threaten
Union Contractual Benefits:
Here’s One Way to Stop this Abuse

Michigan Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill into the House of Representatives on September 24 to protect wages, pensions and retirement benefits of workers of companies entering bankruptcy.  The goal of the bill, said Conyers, is to "make it more difficult for the companies to use bankruptcy to gut workers' wages and benefits." 

The bill will likely face strong political opposition.  Bankruptcy proceedings have become a popular tactic used by U.S. companies to open contracts and force givebacks on unions in the last five years. Labor Notes, Oct 07

Labor Center

in cooperation with the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO,  presents:
2007-08 Courses for Union Members

     Immigration Issues

· The Immigration Debate, A General Overview:  What is the immigration crisis?  Why are they coming?  Myths and Facts about Immigration.

· Getting Immigrants Involved in your Union:  Why are new immigrants not active in your Union?  What can we do to increase and activate our immigrant membership?

· Immigration Reform:  Can our current immigration system be changed?  Is enforcing existing laws the answer?

· Immigrants Rights:  Do undocumented workers have rights?  Educating your members about immigrant legal rights and protections.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has.
--- Margaret Mead

Defend Union Rights:
Attend the Fall Legislative Briefings in your Central Body Area

IFL Fall Legislative Briefings
Legislative priorities outlined for members and legislators